Ramblings on life in rural Japan from a former JET Programme ALT in Towada, Aomori turned permanent resident.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Hong Kong! (Day 2 - Sun., Oct. 12)

Sunday morning was dim sum again, but at a Kowloon restaurant this time. This restaurant had really good chicken feet and cheung fan. Along with Auntie Denise and Uncle Ed, there was also their niece, Vinci. Auntie Denise had asked her to take me shopping that day since she figured a young person closer to my age (in her last year of university) would know better the types of places I’d be interested in.

I ended up getting along really well with Vinci, so the day was a lot of fun! For shopping purposes, it was also helpful that Vinci and I seemed to have very similar tastes (except that her favourite colour is pink, which I never wear since I don’t think it suits me). So yeah, first we went to the Ladies’ Market since I had asked about it. It was kind of like Temple Street (very touristy), so I only bought a T-shirt there.

While we were walking around the streets (not the Ladies’ Market, though), I checked out laptop prices. The prices were pretty reasonable, but they were mostly newer models and at the upper limit of my budget, so I decided against getting one.

The mall in Mong Kok, however, was right on target. We started off getting drinks from Happy Lemon there, then dove into the shopping! I bought three shirts, a watch, a stuffed hippo, and a Kenshin cell phone dangly (from a gacha machine). ^____^

After all the shopping, we were a bit hungry, so we grabbed some curry fish balls and some sort of Chinese sausage on sticks. (Didn’t think to take pictures, just gobbled it down!) We then moved onto dumplings, soy milk and imitation sharks’ fin soup at another place (with tables and seats). (Again, just ate, no pictures. =P)

We took the MRT to Tsim Sha Tsui for more shopping. First we stopped by a Duty Free Shop to get my omiyage. It was pretty funny. A sales guy came up while we were looking at various products and was “This is Hong Kong’s yume product. It’s very oishii.” Clearly he thought we were Japanese tourists. Well, I guess technically I was one, but Vinci was a local! She told me after we left the place that some of the staff were talking about how strange we were—“Japanese” girls speaking in English! =P

I had about 100 people on my omiyage list (Kirita students & teachers, my office, other ALTs, Japanese friends, my dance instructor, eikaiwa students, etc.), so I ended spending almost half of the money I brought with (admittedly not that much) on omiyage alone! It was a lot of stuff, so they gave me a bag with wheels! It would’ve been too embarrassing to cart it around shopping, though, so we left it with customer service for two hours while we walked around. (Thank goodness for that service!)

After buying the omiyage, we had yet another snack break. This time it was HK style tea and French toast with peanut butter! It was pure artery clogging deliciousness! =P (It also reminded me a bit of home, and Friday nights at Café Hollywood after fellowship!)

Then it was onto another mall to find a Heroic Rendezvous store! Heroic Rendezvous is a HK brand designed by Vanessa Chan. I first saw it when I went to Singapore, and I really liked the stuff but it was too expensive for me to buy more than a bag. By HK standards, Heroic Rendezvous is still relatively expensive, but it’s cheaper in HK than in Singapore, and still comparable to (less than, actually), say, Roots prices in Canada.

We went back to collect my omiyage and then went to meet Auntie Denise and Uncle Ed for dinner—stopping off at Uniqlo (graphic tee designs seem to be different in different countries) just long enough for me to buy a ¾ sleeve hooded tee.

We had beef da bin lo for dinner. It was yummy, but I couldn’t really eat that much; I’m not much of a dinner eater now anyway, and I was still a bit full from the French toast! Even though I ate quite a lot, I still had space (I almost always do =P) for dessert! They took me to this place that has awesome mango desserts, so I had sago with mango juice and extra mango. SO yummy!

Then it was back to the hotel room to pack. I had to unwrap almost all the omiyage boxes, and either take out the plastic trays inside and repack them in the boxes (bringing 8 boxes down to 5) or put them into a Ziploc bag.

It was heavy, but I did manage to stuff everything into my one duffel bag (maximum carry-on size) and small bag.

Monday morning I took a shuttle bus (booked and paid for on Saturday evening) to the airport and was on my way home!

2 comments:

Wow, HK seems fantastic! I know their food is the best in all China, and I love dimsum!One problem is their Chinese is different from Mandarin. I could not communicate with them well because not all of them spoke English and their English was with a very strong accent..Anyway, as a fan of this blog I'm glad to know you had an enjoyable break away from Kirita! :D

About Me

Canadian and former JET Programme ALT* who taught English in elementary and junior high schools in Towada from 2007-2012. A certified junior and senior high school English and history teacher in her home province in Canada. (*Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme, Assistant Language Teacher*)